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25 thoughts on “5 Ways Incompetent Leaders Dis-Empower Good People”

I can totally relate to this one from past experience with my own “leaders”. You can add disrespect as another negative result; the people who you are leading can spot a fake with a big ego from a mile away!

There is a difference between the need to be liked, which comes out of insecurity, and being open and secure enough to be liked, which comes from knowing who you are, strengths and weaknesses. You can have influence, be respected and be liked. Some of the best role models I’ve had in my career had all three.

Leaders who aren’t afraid to admit they aren’t perfect themselves, who are authentic and genuine empower others. Real leaders understand they don’t have to have all the answers and in fact, ask your team. The people who do the work usually have ideas. Ask them. That empowers people.

There’s a Sixth way that incompetent leaders dis-empower people: They don’t enforce values and standards, and they don’t discipline those who violate them.

Nothing is more demoralizing to a workforce than to see a few folks consistently get away with violating the company’s stated values and standards. When leaders turn a blind eye to these infractions, it puts the lie to those values.

I see this quite a bit in the retail and service sectors, where good front line employees are hard to find. Desperate managers will overlook dishonesty, lack of initiative, and negativity toward their customers.

Granted, every organization will pick the occasional bad apple. But when these kinds of behaviors come to characterize a company in the customer’s eye – the problem is bigger than the occasional bad apple. The problem with those who are picking, packing and shipping the apples!

I’m a firm believer that leaders should be aligning their teams to the cause or the value that they’re working for, rather than trying to align them to themselves. If people believe in their values (and the organization’s values) they’ll utilize their full potential to deliver and with greater motivation.

Another great post Dan! Unfortunately this “Im great and you are not” behavior is infectious and can lead to a Dilbert-ville cult like culture that is found in many bureaucracies and institutions. Mature organizations become political and empire building leads to a culture of seeking security and maintaining status quo where growth may actually be punished.Smaller growth companies encourage taking risks and seeking opportunity as they are much more purpose driven. Look at where the organization is in it’s life cycle. If its young it may be much more purpose driven. If it’s an older institution, you’ll find more entrenched politics. Each has a distinct culture, but I believe a truly savvy leader will have the acumen to manage effectively in both environments, which can only come from experience.

Dan, good post. I would love to see a post about leading when you’re not the “official” leader; not just with respect to leading teammates, but also with respect to the team leader. Is there a way for a team member to guide a manager into being a better leader?

There is a need for cooperation and respect, but there also a point where decisions need to be made, even if that decision is not necessarily popular. A leader needs to exercise his knowledge and experience. There is a chain of command…it needs to be followed, sometimes at the expense of those who who “follow”. Inexperience sometimes is defined as immaturity.